A conventional power tap (sometimes called current tap) includes a plastic electrical insulating case with metal plugs as inserts connected in a manner to fan out electricity from one electrical input to more than one electrical outputs. Conventionally this power is passed through the power tap unobstructed. Typically a power tap would have protruding metal blades. Equally the power tap would have cavities with metal receptacles that accept the insertion of metal blades from electrical plugs and power adapters. Power taps often use metal inserts to route electricity from the protruding blades to the metal receptacles.
Conventional power taps come in forms that provide an electrical fan out scheme that has a single set of male blades and three or six sets of metal female receptacles. These types of power taps have the disadvantage of large size whereby the power tap may plug into an electrical wall outlet and cover over the adjacent outlet. Another disadvantage is that some of the metal receptacles are covered or smothered by electrical plugs inserted or power adapters inserted. This specific disadvantage reduces the utility of a three to one or six to one power tap. A further disadvantage is the lack of control of electrical conductivity between protruding male blades and female receptacles.
Conventional electrical power tap assemblies use an offset approach to assemble male blades and female receptacles whereby the male blades and female receptacles are not in the ideal vertical plane with one another but are often in the same horizontal line up. This causes the need for a larger than necessary power tap which can overlap adjacent outlets. Additionally, a perfectly aligned vertical and horizontal male blades and female blades would cause the height of the power tap to increase in an inefficient manner. As a result the assembly of the power tap becomes larger or the assembly would become less reliable with a higher risk of inadvertent contact between male and female blades causing increased risk of electrical shock.
There is growing concern about global warming caused by the increased levels of green house gases in the atmosphere. This problem is exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. More electricity demand drives more burning and increased global warming. Solutions are needed to reduce electricity demand. Macro level fixes and small micro level fixes are equally desirable. The benefit of micros level fixes is that individual consumers can have an impact. It is thought that where power consumption provides some utility or benefit to the user, some harmful environmental side effects are tolerated so long as the benefit is measureable. Where there is no measureable benefit or wasted power or lost electrical power no environmental side effects can be tolerated.
It is commonly known that modern electronic and electrical devices and appliances consume electricity to perform their intended function. What is not commonly known is that when these electronic and electrical devices and appliances are not performing their intended function, they continue to consume electricity as they have a standby mode that consumes what is less commonly known as phantom power or standby power.
Standby or phantom power consumption is said to comprise up to 10% of a households electricity bill each month. This phantom power provides no useful benefit to the consumer. One common culprit of phantom power are AC-DC adapters and battery chargers used with all sorts of electronics like television sets, cell phones, cordless phones computers and printers. These devices are often left unplugged to consume phantom power without providing a measureable benefit to their owners.
Power adapters and chargers use only a small amount of electricity when in standby mode but it is commonly known that there are hundreds of millions of these in use around the world and collectively they contribute to a sizeable waste of electricity. Many disclosed power adapters and chargers have been designed to reduce power consumption but not eliminate all standby power. Some have even been disclosed that have automatic shut off or automatic detect features that strive to reduce power drain. Other electrical power strips have electrical outlets with one switch per outlet. Even more disclosed products detect power drain on computer peripherals when the computer has been turned off. The disadvantage of standby power detection and automatic shut off is that they have increased points of failure, increased cost, and a larger footprint where these attributes are not desirable.
The Phantom power saver power tap purports to help people consume less phantom power and thus provides a means to reduce energy consumption in homes and offices. To achieve this, the Phantom Power Saver Power Tap utilizes numerous engineering principles and designs that are both novel and unique. These are described herein:
Indicators are provided that highlight the state of power consumption in a manner that indicates consuming power or not consuming power. Indicators of various types are used that include but are not limited to visual, audible, scent, touch, with wireless and wireline based signalling. Visuals may be manifested in the form of lights LEDs etc. Audibles may be manifested in the form of speakers, vibrating devices etc. Smells may be manifested in the form of scent generators etc. Feels may be manifested in the form of vibrating or temperature changing devices etc. Wireless indicators could be radio frequency based in a controlled spectrum or free spectrum. Wired indicators may use dedicated communications wiring or may use may use power line wiring. FIG. 8 depicts these indicator functions schematically—only the LED variation is shown in the figures.
Intervention function. The most common forms of intervention of power consumption are in the mode of unplugging or using an on off switch. The problems are that many people find unplugging inconvenient and many switches do not turn off the appliance off in its entirety. Thus an intervention device or switch or unplugging method, external to the appliance is needed. This intervention can be manifested in the form of a double pole double throw switch, a single pole single throw switch, or a mechanical formed switch of metal or plastic or an electrical pulse or wireless pulse or signal.
A phantom power saving power tap can begin to eliminate this phantom power loss though manual intervention. Conventional Power taps, power strips and power adapters with automatic detection and automatic shut off or automatic disconnect or power taps operated by remote controls introduce more points of failure and often consume electrical power in the power detection stage and in the power disconnect stage.
Consequently, there is still a need for certainty in the elimination of phantom power, where this certainty can only come from human intervention of manually activating a normally closed switch to the open position where electricity is disconnected from phantom electrical loads with the greatest certainty.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of usefulness, size and lack of control a phantom power saving power tap is disclosed which includes a single set of male blades and either a single set of receptacles or two sets of receptacles. The assembly is such that two can be used on a typical household electrical outlet. The ninety degree rotation of male blades and female receptacles is not intuitive but allows for enhanced miniaturization. The placement of male blades between female receptacles is also not intuitive, nor obvious. The ninety degree rotation is also not intuitive or obvious because often plugs have a third prong for ground. This invention is focused on miniaturizing the power tap for two pronged devices.